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Quotes

Why has the government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint.

—Alexander Hamilton, 1787

Envy is the basis of democracy.

—Bertrand Russell, 1930

Politics is the art of the possible.

—Otto von Bismarck, 1867

Politics, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.

—Ambrose Bierce, 1906

The more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.

—Tacitus, c. 117

A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on the support of Paul.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1944

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

—Henrik Ibsen, 1882

It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

—Niccolò Machiavelli, c. 1515

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

—George H. W. Bush, 1990

Television has made dictatorship impossible, but democracy unbearable.

—Shimon Peres, 1995

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

—Charles de Gaulle, 1963

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.

—James Russell Lowell, c. 1865

The first requirement of a statesman is that he be dull.

—Dean Acheson, 1970